Automatic telephone system with function for multiple out-dialed calls per caller

ABSTRACT

Equipment providing information services, whether installed near a central office or provided as part of a PBX includes a search service for generating a number of outdialing operations in an effort to reach a subscriber of the search service for a caller. A plurality of outdialing operations are initiated simultaneously, sequentially, or as sets of calls in a sequence with each set including one or more simultaneously dialed telephone numbers. The numbers called may be extensions on a PBX, phone numbers within any area code, cellular phones, or any other type of number which can be reached by telephone. The caller is kept informed of the success or failure of the outdialing operations and when the subscriber called by the caller is reached, the two are connected and any other outdialing operation is terminated. When all of the outdialing operations for one set of telephone numbers is unsuccessful, the next set in sequence is used in one or more new outdialing operations.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is directed to automated call processing systemsand, more particularly, to an automated call processing system forlocating a called party.

2. Description of the Related Art

In recent years, new telecommunications capabilities have becomeavailable to the public, many of which are commonly termed informationservices. Thus, the hardware and software which provide these servicesare called information services systems. Subscribers of informationservices made available by local or regional telephone companies andowners of some private branch exchanges gain access to e.g., voice storeand forward capability (voice mail); automatic call generation forreminders or wake-up calls, etc.; automatic call distribution; automatedcall screening; and more. Systems such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat.Nos. 4,371,752; 4,580,012; 4,581,486; 4,585,906; and 4,602,129, allassigned to VMX, Inc. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,371,752 was originally assignedto ECS Telecommunications, Inc.) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,199 and U.S.patent application Ser. No. 07/594,648 which are assigned to BostonTechnology, Inc. enable public telephone companies to provide many ofthese services. Systems like those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos.4,696,028; 4,809,321; 4,850,012; 4,955,047; 5,020,095; and 5,029,196,all assigned to DYTEL Corp., enable owners of private branch exchanges(PBXs) to obtain many of these features. Additional services continue tobe made available and there are many types of services which have yet tobe developed.

On the other hand, telecommunications equipment has been developed whichaids in contacting an individual. Cellular telephones and other types ofradio telephones provide telephone communications via systems installedin automotive vehicles and hand-held units. Pagers enable individuals tobe notified that someone needs to talk to them by telephone. However,all of these types of equipment require that a specific piece ofequipment be in close proximity to the individual, so that theindividual can receive a call or a notification of a call. No device orsystem functionality currently exists to reach an individual usingconventional telephones in a number of locations.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the invention is to provide an automated search service fordialing several telephone numbers in an effort to reach an individual.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an automatedsearch service for dialing a plurality of telephone numberssimultaneously to reach an individual as quickly as possible.

Yet another object of the present invention is to automatically dialphone numbers in a predefined sequence in an effort to reach anindividual.

A further object of the present invention is to provide automated callrouting to a subscriber of an information services in which differentphone numbers are called depending upon the time of day at which anincoming call is received for the subscriber.

The above objects are obtained by providing a method for operating atelephone call processing system, comprising the steps of: receiving asearch indication that an incoming caller requires special handling toreach a called party; initiating a plurality of outdialing operations ina predefined manner to contact the called party; performing each of theoutdialing operations by calling a corresponding number and receiving anoutdial operation response; terminating each unsuccessful outdialingoperation when the called party is unavailable at the correspondingnumber called by the unsuccessful outdialing operation and when thecalled party is contacted by a successful outdialing operation; andconnecting the incoming caller to the called party contacted by thesuccessful outdialing operation. The outdialing operations may beinitiated simultaneously to reach the called party as quickly aspossible. Alternatively, the outdialing operations may be performedsequentially; first one phone number is called and if the called partyis not reached, then a second number is called. In addition, thesealternatives can be combined by calling sets of telephone numbers in apredefined sequence. The manner in which the telephone numbers arecalled may be modified by time of day or by identification of the callerusing, e.g., access codes or voice recognition.

Preferably, the caller is informed of the progress of the outdialingoperations. During simultaneous calling of telephone numbers, eachoutdialing operation which is determined to be unsuccessful in reachingthe called party is reported to the caller. When a set of one or moretelephone numbers in a sequence has been unsuccessful, the caller ispreferably given an opportunity to continue with the next set, if any,or take other action, such as dialing a different person's phone numberor extension, leaving a message on voice mail, sending a facsimile ore-mail, etc. During simultaneous outdialing operations, when one of theoutdialing operations is successful, the other outdialing operations areterminated. If one of the outdialing operations to be terminated hasbeen connected to a human being, the human being is informed that thecalled party has been reached prior to terminating the connection.

These objects, together with other objects and advantages which will besubsequently apparent, reside in the details of construction andoperation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, whereinlike reference numerals refer to like parts throughout.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a local telephone system including aninformation services system according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a file structure diagram in one embodiment of a phone numbersearch file used by the present invention; and

FIGS. 3A-3C are flowcharts of a method according to the presentinvention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention provides a service to subscribers using atelephone network. A preferred embodiment using an integrated servicesplatform to provide the service is described below. However, other waysof providing the service defined by the appended claims will be readilyapparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. For example, a computersystem having a single processor could be used, either to provide all ofthe services of the integrated services platform, or to provide solely aservice according to the present invention.

Illustrated in FIG. 1 is a telephone network including an integratedservices platform 10, such as the platform disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos.5,029,199 and 5,193,100 both incorporated herein by reference. Typicalservices that are performed by an information services system, such asthe platform 10 include voice mail, automated reception services, etc.In the platform described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,199, a digital switch12 is controlled by control unit 14 which may contain one or more mastercontrol units (MCU) 16 each including a MCU processor 18.

The MCUs 16 control operation of the digital switching system 12 via oneof the control lines 21 to establish connections with a central office22. A plurality of application processing units (APUs) 24, connectedtogether and to the MCUs 16 via a communication network 25, such as anETHERNET, may perform many functions, including speech recognition,speech synthesis, voice mail processing, facsimile processing, e-mailprocessing, videotext processing, etc. As illustrated in FIG. 1 anddescribed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/594,648, some of theapplication processing units (APUs) 24 may be limited to providing asingle service, such as voice processing units 24₂ -24_(c) or facsimileprocessing units 24_(D) -24_(M). Other application processing units,represented by APUs 24₁ and 24_(N) may provide multiple services whichare either used less often, and may provide one or more of voice mailand facsimile processing for responding to fluctuations in demand. Ifthe central office 22 is a digital central office, connection betweenthe central office 22 and the digital switching system 12 may be via amultiple line hunt group (MLHG) 26 and one or more conventional T1 lines27. However, if the central office is an older analog switch, a channelbank 28 in an analog/digital converter unit 30 is provided between theMLHG 26 and the T1 line(s) 27. During operation, a message packet may bepassed from the central office 22 to the control unit 14 via modems 32,34 using a protocol such as the simplified message desk interface(SMDI). The same link can be used to send a message waiting indication(MWI) to subscribers connected to the central office 22.

The central office 22 may be connected to many different types ofphones, including single line phones 36, 38, centrex phones 40 andprivate branch exchanges, such as PBX 42 with PBX extensions 44.

Each MCU 16 includes a MCU memory 46 in addition to the MCU processor18, as illustrated for MCU1. The contents of the MCU memory 46 in MCU1and MCU2 is typically the same, to provide redundancy. To simplifyexplanation of the present invention, it will be assumed that there isonly a single active MCU 16 with a MCU processor 18 and MCU memory 46.

Included in the tasks executed by the MCU 16 are distributing theprocessing of incoming telephone calls to the APUs 24 and maintainingadministration data. Included in the administration data are one or morefiles defining parameters of a search service according to the presentinvention. These files may take many forms, one example of which isillustrated in FIG. 2. There may be additional fields beyond those shownin FIG. 2, or a subset of the features of the present invention may beprovided while retaining other features of the present invention andthus fewer fields might be included. In addition, the correlationbetween the fields could be provided by different means, includingseparate files linked in any conventional way, including using one ormore fields which are common among the files.

The present invention is directed to situations in which an individualcannot be reached at an extension and due to urgency or some otherreason it is important that the individual be reached by a caller,rather than recording a message, and to situations in which anindividual must be reached as quickly as possible and the MCU memory 46contains more than one telephone number for the individual or "calledparty". According to the present invention, the processors 18, 24 in theplatform 10 are programmed to respond in the situations described aboveby initiating a plurality of outdialing operations in a predefinedmanner to contact the called party. The predefined manner may be aspecific order determined by the contents of the search file, such asthe file illustrated in FIG. 2. In different situations, it may bepreferable for the predefined manner to specify performing a number ofoutdialing operations simultaneously, such as in a case of extremeurgency, or to sequentially try one phone number after another until allphone numbers for an individual have been called. Depending upon thetype of people who subscribe to the service, only one of these two typesmight be provided. However, in the preferred embodiment a search fileaccording to the present invention is structured to provide theflexibility to perform either type of outdialing operation or acombination of the two.

The flexible operation of the preferred embodiment is made possible bystoring information like that illustrated in FIG. 2. In the preferredembodiment, phone numbers at which a subscriber can be reached arestored in sets. Each set may have one or more telephone numbers whichare recorded in the phone number field. In FIG. 2, textual labels areused, but in a real file, the corresponding digits would be stored inthe phone number field. Each of the sets have a predefined sequence asindicated by the sequence field. There are several ways in whichmultiple phone numbers can be assigned to the same set. One way is topermit several phone numbers to be entered in a single phone numberfield. Another is to have multiple records with the same sequencenumber, as illustrated in FIG. 2. An entry in the file having sequencenumber 1, such as the first line in FIG. 2, will be dialed as soon asthe search service is initiated.

In the preferred embodiment, one or more other records are used toindicate when the search service is initiated. Some examples of what maybe stored in the record(s) include initiating the search serviceimmediately, or after a phone number dialed by a caller fails to reachthe called party and the call is forwarded from a public telephoneswitch (e.g., using SMDI), or as an option in an automated receptionistservice, or any other condition which can be detected. The record(s) maybe created in any known way, including using either a computer terminalor an interface using audio output and telephone keypad input.Conventional information services systems typically provide for handlingcall failures in more than one way, e.g., transfer to another extension,such as the operator, or transfer to a voice mail process which may beexecuted by an APU 24 when implemented on the platform 10 illustrated inFIG. 1. One way of implementing the present invention is to modify theexisting mechanism for handling call failures to check the searchservice file which may be similar to the file depicted in FIG. 2, when,e.g., there is a "ring no answer" at a called number of a subscriber tothe search service. In this situation, a search service according to thepresent invention may be implemented in an information services systemfor subscribers who do not subscribe to an automated receptionist orvoice mail service.

For individuals who subscribe to both an automated receptionist and asearch service according to the present invention, the automatedreceptionist may provide a menu option or respond to an unannouncedaccess code which permits immediate access to the search service.Another way of providing immediate access to the search service is for asubscriber to have more than one telephone number. One telephone numbermay be for an office where the subscriber is during the day. The searchservice might be used if there is no answer at the subscriber's officetelephone number. Another telephone number might be the residence of thesubscriber. The call failure handling for the subscriber's residentialtelephone number might only permit leaving a voice mail message, ormight permit only trying the office number and then voice mail. A thirdtelephone number of the subscriber might be used to immediately enterinto the search service. Since these alternatives merely requiremodification to the codes used in conventional call failure processingand the addition of computer program(s) to identify the code in the callfailure files and access the search service programs or map a telephonenumber to initiate the search service, details of how this would beaccomplished can be easily provided by one of ordinary skill in the art.

In the event that an automated receptionist is used to provide a menuoption for access to the search service, some mechanism may be used toidentify or classify the caller. For example, when access to the searchservice is requested, the caller may be prompted for an access code.Alternatively, at this time or previously the caller may be asked togive the name of who is calling. In a conventional manner, this name maybe stored as an announcement for when the called party is reached. Inaddition, the name could be compared with prerecorded names in a form ofvoice recognition to identify the caller. Other forms of calleridentification may be used as known in the art. Using any of these meansto identify the caller, the caller may be assigned a priority which isused to reference the priority field in the file illustrated in FIG. 2.For callers assigned different priorities, the system may use differentsets of telephone numbers. For example, the system may not route callsfrom business associates to a subscriber's home, calls from some friendsor other acquaintances might be routed to a subscriber's home, but notto an office number, etc. Other priority values might be provided forcallers who do not have an access code or are not recognized when theirname is given. This priority or another priority might not be permittedto use the search service at all, or at certain times of day by usingthe time field as described below.

The time field in the file illustrated in FIG. 2 may be used to add anadditional restriction to when a phone number in a set is used. Asillustrated in FIG. 2, some sets might be active at all times. Forexample, a number 1 priority call to the subscriber whose file isillustrated in FIG. 2 will result in a single initial phone call to oneof the small transportable cellular telephones which this subscriberusually has nearby. If there is no answer, three telephone calls areinitiated simultaneously, two of which are to different office phonenumbers and the third of which calls the subscriber's residence. Theoffice phone numbers might be the main number and a direct inward dialnumber for a single office, or two completely different locations forsomeone who has more than one office. If all three of these calls areunsuccessful in locating the subscriber, then a call is placed to one ofthree numbers, if the time of day is a time at which the subscriber islikely to be at that location. The first is a restaurant where thesubscriber regularly eats breakfast, but no other meals, the second is aclub where the subscriber sometimes goes in the evening, and the thirdis a country club where the subscriber plays golf. If the number(s)called in the third set are unsuccessful or the time of day does not fitany of the three categories, then a relative is called. If this call isalso unsuccessful, as a last resort the caller is given the opportunityto leave a voice mail message. The examples given merely provide anindication of the flexibility, including time restrictions which canoverlap, e.g., zero, one or two phone calls might be made in set 3.

A more detailed description of how search service processing isperformed will be provided with reference to FIGS. 3A-3C and to thesearch file illustrated in FIG. 2. No detailed description will beprovided of how the caller enters the search service, since mapping to aprocess as a result of calling a particular phone number and use ofmenus by an automated receptionist are well known. Any known method maybe used to identify 60 a caller if this option is made available tosubscribers. The present invention does not depend upon the caller beingidentified, since all callers could be treated the same. Similarly,assigning 62 a priority for searching is an option which may or may notbe made available to subscribers. Most likely prioritization will onlybe used if callers are identified. In addition, prioritization might beused only at specified time(s) of day or based on last known location.These options are illustrated to conform to the fields in FIG. 2.

The essential steps of the present invention begin once a searchindication is received (as part of step 62) that an incoming callerrequires special handling to reach a called party. This searchindication is obtained by an incoming call process which may be anautomated receptionist or a process which maps telephone numbers toservices, or some other process, as discussed above. In response, theMCU 16 reads 64 the search file stored in the MCU memory 46 andinitiates 66 one or more outdialing operations, depending upon thenumber of phone numbers in the first phone number set, i.e., withsequence number 1, which match the circumstances, i.e., the priority ofthe caller, the time of day and any other restrictions which might bepresent. For the subscriber whose data is illustrated in FIG. 2, asingle outdialing operation would be initiated when the search begins.The outdialing operation(s) are performed 68 as described below withreference to FIG. 3B and preferably the caller is informed 70 of theprogress of the outdialing operations as described below with referenceto FIG. 3C. The task of informing 70 the caller of progress inperforming the outdialing operation(s) may be one of the tasks of theincoming call process or the MCU 16 may initiate a task-on one of theAPUs 24 to report on the progress of the outdialing operations.

An outdial operation response is received 72 as a busy signal, ring noanswer, or a response by a human being, such as a response to a menuoutput by the process performing the outdialing operation, as discussedbelow with respect to FIG. 3B. Based on the outdial operation response adetermination is made 74 whether the outdialing operation is successful.If the outdial operation response indicates that the outdialingoperation was unsuccessful, that outdialing operation is terminated 76.If it is determined 74 that the outdialing operation was successful,i.e., the outdial operation response indicates that the called party isat the phone number called by that outdialing operation, the MCU 16controls the DSS 12 to connect 78 the incoming call to the telephonecalled by the successful outdialing operation. All remaining outdialingoperations will necessarily be unsuccessful and therefore they areterminated 80 after sending an appropriate message, such as stating thatthe called party has been found elsewhere. In the future, centraloffices may have the capability, e.g., using "SS7", to make theconnection between the caller and the called party. If so, the MCU 16 orthe APUs 24 connected to the caller and the called party will generatethe signals necessary to cause the central office 22 to make theconnection.

Until a successful outdialing operation is detected, after eachtermination of an unsuccessful outdialing operation, a determination ismade 82 as to whether all outdialing operations in a set have been foundto be unsuccessful, e.g., after a predetermined amount of time has beenspent calling a specific number. If at least one outdialing operation inthe current set continues to be performed, the MCU 16 waits untilanother outdial operation response is received 72. When all outdialingoperations in a set are determined 82 to be unsuccessful, the searchfile is read 64 for another set. If another set exists for the calledparty, steps 66-74 are repeated and steps 76-82 are performed asappropriate depending upon the outdial operation response(s). In thecase of the file depicted in FIG. 2, in the first set only a singleoutdialing operation will be initiated 66 and if determined 74 to beunsuccessful, after reading 64 the second set, three outdialingoperations will be initiated 66. This may be accomplished by havingthree different APUs 24 each execute a process which performs anoutdialing operation, or each of the three outdialing operations couldbe assigned to one of the ports on the same APU 24, or in general anycombination of APUs 24 executing one or more processes could be used.

As each outdialing operation is initiated, the steps illustrated in FIG.3B are performed. The MCU 16 selects 84 an APU 24 based on evendistribution of load on the APUs 24. The selected APU, e.g., APU 241, isinstructed 86 to perform an outdialing operation by transmitting amessage packet from the MCU 16 to the selected APU 241 via the bus 25.The message packet will include an instruction code which the APUs 24have been programmed to interpret as requiring initiation of anoutdialing process and will also include the phone number from thesearch file in the MCU memory 46. The MCU 16 controls the DSS 12 toconnect 88 a port of the APU 24₁ to the central office 22 so that theAPU 24₁ can generate 90 dual tone multifrequency (DTMF) signals to dialthe phone number included in the message packet.

After the number has been "dialed" 90, a test is made 92 to determinewhether call progress signals are received. If a "ring no answer" wasreceived 94, i.e., a predetermined number of rings are detected by theoutdial operation process and no other sounds are received indicating aresponse, the outdialing operation is terminated 96 and a callcompletion indication is provided via the bus 25 to the MCU 16 and tothe process reporting on progress of the outdialing operations to thecaller indicating that connection was made to the telephone number, butthere was no answer. If a "ring no answer" has not been detected 94,appropriate action is taken 98 in response to the call progress signalwhich was detected. For example, if a busy signal is received, the callmay be terminated and then repeated every 30 seconds or one minute for apredetermined period of time. In any event, the type of call progresssignal received is reported in a call completion indication that istransmitted to the MCU 16 and to the process reporting on the outdialingoperations to the caller.

If it is determined 100 that some other response has been received, apredefined message is generated 102 to request the called party usingconventional voice synthesis (or a stored voice message) and menugeneration techniques. For example a message of the type "Hello, I havean important phone call for John Doe; please indicate if John Doe isthere by pressing 1, if John Doe is not there by pressing 2, if you wantme to wait while you check to see if John Doe is there by pressing 3 andif you want to hear the options again by pressing 9." The process waits104 until a predetermined period of time passes or a response isreceived. Speaker independent voice recognition could be used to try todetermine what response, if any, is received, e.g., "Yes" or "No" inresponse to a query of whether the called party is present. The request102 is repeated if no response is received. When it is determined 106that an outdial operation response was received or the message has beenrepeated a predetermined number of times, a determination is made 108 asto whether the called party is available.

If the called party is available, a successful call completionindication is generated 110 and output on bus 25 to the MCU 16 and tothe process communicating with the caller. Then, the MCU 16 connects 78the caller to the called party and generates message packets to theoutdialing operation processes to terminate 80 all remaining outdialingoperations. If the outdial operation response indicates that the calledparty is unavailable, a termination message, such as "Thank you for yourassistance in reaching John Doe" is generated 112. Then the call isterminated 96 and an unsuccessful call completion indication isgenerated. In FIG. 3B, the termination process after step 112 isillustrated as being the same as after step 94, but they may bedifferent. For example, the unsuccessful call completion indicationafter step 112 may be specific enough to indicate that a person wasreached at the number, but the called party was unavailable. Thisinformation could be passed on to the caller by the process monitoringthe outdialing operations as described below with respect to FIG. 3C.

There are many ways in which the caller could be kept informed of theprogress of the outdialing operations. One of the simplest is togenerate a message every few seconds along the lines of "An effort isbeing made to contact John Doe." Near the other extreme, at least whenonly one phone is being dialed at a time, the signals received by theoutdialing operation process could be supplied to the caller so that thecaller could hear how the operation is proceeding. An intermediateexample is illustrated in FIG. 3C. It is assumed that a process has beeninitiated and is maintaining connection to the caller. As noted above,this process may be one task within the incoming call process, or may bea separate process initiated by the MCU 16 prior to initiating theoutdialing operations. For example, this process might execute on APU24_(N).

When the outdialing operations are initiated by the MCU 16, themonitoring process will receive 120 one or more initiation packets whichmay be the same packet(s) used to initiate the outdialing operations andare used by monitoring process to provide information regarding thenumber of phone calls that are being dialed. Alternatively, the packetsmay provide information, such as the text labels in the phone numberfield illustrated in FIG. 2. In the latter case, an additional fieldcontaining the label identifying the type of phone number would berequired and would likely be stored as a digitally recorded voicemessage by the subscriber.

Using the information received 120 in the initiation packets, themonitoring process may describe 122 the outdialing operation to thecaller. If there are no separate packets supplied to the monitoringprocess, the message might be as simple as, "One phone number is beingdialed in an effort to reach John Doe" or, "Three phone numbers arebeing dialed in an effort to reach John Doe." After generating themessage describing 122 the outdialing operation(s), the monitoringprocess determines 124 whether a call completion indication has beenproduced by any outdialing operation. If not, the previous message or asimilar message may be generated 122 again. When a call completionindication is received, the call completion indication is tested 126 todetermine whether the call was completed successfully. As noted above,in the event of a successful call completion indication, the caller isinformed 128 and then the MCU 16 connects 78 the caller to the callparty. If the outdialing operation is determined 126 to be unsuccessful,the caller will be informed 130. The message produced 130 might simplystate that "John Doe was not at one of the phone numbers" or a moreelaborate message might be provided, such as "There was no answer onJohn Doe's pocket phone." After generating 130 the unsuccessful callcompletion message, the monitoring process determines 132 whether alldialing operations for a set have been completed. If not, the monitoringprocess returns to describing 122 the remaining outdialing operation(s)and checking 124 for additional call completion indications. If a set iscomplete, either another set of initiation packets will be received 120,or the monitoring process will receive an instruction from the MCU 16 toterminate execution. In the example illustrated in FIG. 2, a final phonenumber which is called is the voice mailbox for the called party and theMCU 16 will terminate the monitoring process when a voice mail processbegins communication with the caller. Alternatively, the monitoringprocess could directly hand over the caller to a voice mail processwhich accesses the same port.

The many features and advantages of the present invention are apparentfrom the detailed specification and thus it is intended by the appendedclaims to cover all such features and advantages of the system whichfall within the true spirit and scope of the invention. Further, sincenumerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilledin the art from the disclosure of the invention, it is not desired tolimit the invention to the exact construction and operation illustratedand described. Accordingly, suitable modifications and equivalents maybe resorted to, as falling within the scope and spirit of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of operating a telephone call processingsystem, comprising the steps of:(a) receiving a search indication thatan incoming caller requires special handling to reach a called party;(b) initiating a plurality of outdialing operations to contact thecalled party by sequentially calling a plurality of phone number sets,each set including a plurality of phone numbers for outdialingsimultaneously; (c) performing each of the outdialing operations bycalling a corresponding number and receiving an outdial operationresponse; (d) terminating each unsuccessful outdialing operation whenthe called party is unavailable at the corresponding number called bythe unsuccessful outdialing operation and when the called party iscontacted by a successful outdialing operation; and (e) connecting theincoming caller to the called party contacted by the successfuloutdialing operation.
 2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein saidperforming in step (c) comprises the steps of:(c1) simultaneouslyoutdialing each phone number in a first phone number set; (c2)determining that said outdialing in step (c1) is unsuccessful for eachphone number after a predetermined number of rings without answer andalso when other predefined unsuccessful call progress indications arereceived; (c3) generating a first predefined message with a request forthe outdial operation response indicating availability of the calledparty when an answer indication is received at the phone numberoutdialed in step (c1); (c4) receiving the outdial operation responserequested in step (c3); and (c5) generating a call completion indicationfor the telephone call processing system in dependence upon saiddetermining in step (c2) and the outdial operation response received instep (c3).
 3. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein said terminatingin step (d) comprises the steps of:(d1) generating a second predefinedmessage when the response received in step (c3) indicates that thecalled party is unavailable at the phone number outdialed in step (c1);(d2) generating a third predefined message when the call completionindication from another outdialing operation indicates successfulcontact with the called party; and (d3) breaking connection with thephone number outdialed in step (c1) after either of steps (d1) and (d2).4. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein step (c) further comprisesthe steps of:(c6) outdialing each phone number in a second phone numberset when the call completion indication for all phone numbers outdialedin step (c1) indicates that said outdialing was unsuccessful at reachingthe called party, said outdialing in step (c6) performed simultaneouslywhen more than one phone number is in the second phone number set; and(c7) repeating steps (c2)-(c5) for said outdialing in step (c6).
 5. Amethod as recited in claim 4, wherein step (c) further comprises step(c8) repeating steps (c6) and (c7) for each additional phone number set,one phone number set at a time.
 6. A method as recited in claim 5,wherein the phone numbers in each phone number set may have varyingnumbers of digits and other call processing codes, with as few as onedigit.
 7. A method of operating an information services systemprocessing incoming calls for subscribers of the information servicessystem, said method comprising the steps of:(a) storing records defininga plurality of phone number sets for each subscriber of a searchservice, each phone number set including a plurality of telephonenumbers and having a sequence number associated therewith; (b) executingan incoming call process to identify and respond to incoming callsrequiring the search service; (c) initiating a plurality of outdialingoperations when said executing in step (b) identifies an incoming callfor a search service subscriber requiring the search service; (d)executing the outdialing operations initiated in step (c) bysimultaneously outdialing each of the telephone numbers in one phonenumber set at a time, in an order determined by the sequence numberassociated therewith; and (e) connecting the incoming call to the searchservice subscriber when located by a successful outdialing operation. 8.A method as recited in claim 7, further comprising the step of (f)storing records defining criteria for invoking the search service toprovide immediate use of the search service for a first subscriber anduse of the search service only if the incoming call is initiallyunsuccessful for a second subscriber.
 9. A method as recited in claim 7,wherein said executing in step (b) comprises the steps of:(b1)identifying the incoming call requiring the search service; and (b2)reporting results of said executing in step (d) to the caller making theincoming call requiring the search service.
 10. A method as recited inclaim 9, wherein said executing in step (b) further comprises the stepsof:(b3) providing a menu of options to the caller after said reportingin step (b2); (b4) receiving a response from the caller to the menuprovided in step (b3); and (b5) interrupting said executing in step (d)in dependence upon said receiving in step (b4).
 11. An informationservices system processing incoming calls for subscribers of informationservices provided by said information services system, comprising:memorymeans for storing records defining a plurality of phone number sets foreach subscriber of a search service, each phone number set including aplurality of telephone numbers and having a sequence number associatedtherewith; processing means for executing an incoming call process toidentify incoming calls requiring the search service, for initiating aplurality of outdialing operations when an incoming call requiring thesearch service is identified and for executing the outdialing operationsby simultaneously outdialing each of the telephone numbers in one phonenumber set at a time, in an order determined by the sequence numberassociated therewith; and switch control means for controllingconnection of the incoming call to a search service subscriber whenlocated by a successful outdialing operation.
 12. An informationservices system as recited in claim 11, further comprising switch means,for connecting the incoming call to the search service subscriber inresponse to said switch control means.
 13. An information servicessystem as recited in claim 11, wherein said switch control means signalsa switch outside the information services system to connect the incomingcall to the search service subscriber.
 14. An information servicessystem processing incoming calls for subscribers of information servicesprovided by said information services system, comprising:a random accessmemory for storing records defining a plurality of phone number sets foreach subscriber of a search service, each phone number set including aplurality of telephone numbers and having a sequence number associatedtherewith; a first application processing unit for executing an incomingcall process to identify incoming calls requiring the search service; atleast one master control processor, operatively connected to said randomaccess memory and said first application processing unit, to initiate aplurality of outdialing operations when said first applicationprocessing unit identifies an incoming call for a search servicesubscriber requiring the search service; at least one second applicationprocessing unit, operatively connected to said master control processorand said first application processing unit, to execute the outdialingoperations initiated by said master control unit by simultaneouslyoutdialing each of the telephone numbers in one phone number set at atime, in an order determined by the sequence number associatedtherewith; and a digital switching system, operatively connected to saidfirst and second application processing units and said master controlprocessor, controlled by said master control unit to connect theincoming call to the search service subscriber when located by asuccessful outdialing operation.
 15. A method of operating a telephonecall processing system, comprising the steps of:(a) receiving a searchindication that an incoming caller requires special handling to reach acalled party; (b) initiating a plurality of outdialing operations in apredefined manner to contact the called party by initiating calls to atleast two phone number sets with at least one of the phone number setshaving a plurality of phone numbers for outdialing simultaneously, thephone number sets being processed sequentially; (c) performing each ofthe outdialing operations by calling a corresponding number andreceiving an outdial operation response; (d) terminating eachunsuccessful outdialing operation when the called party is unavailableat the corresponding number called by the unsuccessful outdialingoperation and when the called party is contacted by a successfuloutdialing operation, all of the outdialing operations in a precedingset being terminated in step (d) before any the outdialing operations ina subsequent set are initiated in step (b); and (e) connecting theincoming caller to the called party contacted by the successfuloutdialing operation.
 16. A method as recited in claim 15, wherein saidperforming in step (c) comprises the steps of:(c1) outdialing each phonenumber in a first phone number set, said outdialing performedsimultaneously when more than one phone number is in the first phonenumber set; (c2) determining that said outdialing in step (c1) isunsuccessful for each phone number after a predetermined number of ringswithout answer and also when other predefined unsuccessful call progressindications are received; (c3) generating a first predefined messagewith a request for the outdial operation response indicatingavailability of the called party when an answer indication is receivedat the phone number outdialed in step (c1); (c4) receiving the outdialoperation response requested in step (c3); and (c5) generating a callcompletion indication for the telephone call processing system independence upon said determining in step (c2) and the outdial operationresponse received in step (c3).
 17. A method as recited in claim 16,wherein said terminating in step (d) comprises the steps of:(d1)generating a second predefined message when the response received instep (c3) indicates that the called party is unavailable at the phonenumber outdialed in step (c1); (d2) generating a third predefinedmessage when the call completion indication from another outdialingoperation indicates successful contact with the called party; and (d3)breaking connection with the phone number outdialed in step (c1) aftereither of steps (d1) and (d2).
 18. A method as recited in claim 16,wherein step (c) further comprises the steps of:(c6) outdialing eachphone number in a second phone number set when the call completionindication for all phone numbers outdialed in step (c1) indicates thatsaid outdialing was unsuccessful at reaching the called party, saidoutdialing in step (c6) performed simultaneously when more than onephone number is in the second phone number set; and (c7) repeating steps(c2)-(c5) for said outdialing in step (c6).
 19. A method as recited inclaim 18, wherein step (c) further comprises step (c8) repeating steps(c6) and (c7) for each additional phone number set, one phone number setat a time.
 20. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein the phonenumbers in each phone number set may have varying numbers of digits andother call processing codes, with as few as one digit.
 21. A method ofoperating an information services system processing incoming calls forsubscribers of the information services system, said method comprisingthe steps of:(a) storing records defining for each subscriber of asearch service at least two phone number sets having sequence numbersassociated therewith, at least one of the phone number sets including atleast two telephone numbers; (b) executing an incoming call process toidentify and respond to incoming calls requiring the search service; (c)initiating a plurality of outdialing operations when said executing instep (b) identifies an incoming call for a search service subscriberrequiring the search service; (d) executing the outdialing operationsinitiated in step (c) by simultaneously outdialing each telephone numberin one phone number set at a time, in an order determined by thesequence number associated therewith; and (e) connecting the incomingcall to the search service subscriber when located by a successfuloutdialing operation.
 22. A method as recited in claim 21, furthercomprising the step of (f) storing records defining criteria forinvoking the search service to provide immediate use of the searchservice for a first subscriber and use of the search service only if theincoming call is initially unsuccessful for a second subscriber.
 23. Amethod as recited in claim 21, wherein said executing in step (b)comprises the steps of:(b1) identifying the incoming call requiring thesearch service; and (b2) reporting results of said executing in step (d)to the caller making the incoming call requiring the search service. 24.A method as recited in claim 23, wherein said executing in step (b)further comprises the steps of:(b3) providing a menu of options to thecaller after said reporting in step (b2); (b4) receiving a response fromthe caller to the menu provided in step (b3); and (b5) interrupting saidexecuting in step (d) in dependence upon said receiving in step (b4).25. An information services system processing incoming calls forsubscribers of information services provided by said informationservices system, comprising:memory means for storing records defining atleast two phone number sets for each subscriber of a search service,each phone number set having a sequence number associated therewith andat least one of the phone number sets having a plurality of phonenumbers for outdialing simultaneously; processing means for executing anincoming call process to identify incoming calls requiring the searchservice, for initiating outdialing operations when an incoming callrequiring the search service is identified and for executing theoutdialing operations by outdialing the at least two phone number sets,one phone number set at a time, in an order determined by the sequencenumber associated therewith, including simultaneously outdialing theplurality of phone numbers in the at least one of the phone number sets;and switch control means for controlling connection of the incoming callto a search service subscriber when located by a successful outdialingoperation.
 26. An information services system as recited in claim 25,further comprising switch means, for connecting the incoming call to thesearch service subscriber in response to said switch control means. 27.An information services system as recited in claim 25, wherein saidswitch control means signals a switch outside the information servicessystem to connect the incoming call to the search service subscriber.28. An information services system processing incoming calls forsubscribers of information services provided by said informationservices system, comprising:a random access memory for storing recordsdefining at least two phone number sets for each subscriber of a searchservice, each phone number set having a sequence number associatedtherewith and at least one of the phone number sets having a pluralityof phone numbers for outdialing simultaneously; a first applicationprocessing unit for executing an incoming call process to identifyincoming calls requiring the search service; at least one master controlprocessor, operatively connected to said random access memory and saidfirst application processing unit, to initiate outdialing operationswhen said first application processing unit identifies an incoming callfor a search service subscriber requiring the search service; at leastone second application processing unit, operatively connected to saidmaster control processor and said first application processing unit, toexecute the outdialing operations initiated by said master control unitby outdialing the at least two phone number sets, one phone number setat a time, in an order determined by the sequence number associatedtherewith, including simultaneously outdialing the plurality of phonenumbers in the at least one of the phone number sets; and a digitalswitching system, operatively connected to said first and secondapplication processing units and said master control processor,controlled by said master control unit to connect the incoming call tothe search service subscriber when located by a successful outdialingoperation.